A Ye Olde Teen Comedy - Catherine Called Birdy
Bella Ramsey's reign continues in Lena Dunham's delightful film adaptation - spoiler free
In a landscape of coming of age films - Catherine Called Birdy feels remarkably fresh for being, well, quite old. Set in Medieval times in the shire of Lincoln in England, Catherine, or Birdy as she’s affectionately called by her family and friends, is quite happy playing in the mud, and in her own words - her passions are avoiding chores, critiquing her fathers horrible swordplay & causing mischief. She is also on the brink of puberty - preoccupied with a huge concern that one day she will have to have a baby which will “pop out of her bum in 9 months”. Her father Lord Rollo, played by none other than the sexy priest himself Andrew Scott, spends the families wealth on frivolous things - such a tiger which doesn’t quite make the journey to Lincoln, and her all-together more balanced mother, Lady Aislinn (played by a somewhat unrecognisable Billie Piper) are experiencing money issues - quite substantial money issues. So they agree that once Birdy comes of age, she’ll be married off to improve the homestead’s income. In scenes that don’t shy away from reproductive functions of women, Birdy stuffs her used menstrual rags under the privy to keep her ascent into womanhood from her father, hoping to stave off the impending arranged marriage. Birdy’s struggle with adolescence might be of the medieval variety, but the sentiments have still not changed: the struggle with crushes, periods, friendships and dealing with the expectancies put on women are all present, but in Dunham’s take on the source material, are not all doom and gloom.
Employing a sweet bouncy soundtrack of reimagined pop classics and stylistic diary entry pop-ups giving short summaries of our characters gives the film its classical teen edge. It’s not doing anything revolutionary with its teen-comedy format, but what makes it refreshing is its cheekiness, a view of an unconventional girl who doesn’t fit the archetype of a “lady”. For a while now, we’ve had films that focus on girls going through teen-hood where they are obsessed with boys, fashion, saying, doing, being the right thing - Catherine Called Birdy tosses this out the window and replaces a desire to fit in with an abandonment of the feminine - Birdy loves playing in the mud, she loves a good hanging (even just a little one) and doesn’t seem to be at war with her pubescent body. I have always found myself drawn to female narratives that are driven by rebellious and headstrong female characters, I wish I had known about the book when I was growing up - I have a feeling it would have been a firm favourite.
For everything that Catherine Called Birdy gets wrong - there are some flaws, the middle part of the film feels a little bloated, the ending (I believe this is different to the ending of the book) sort of comes out of nowhere, and doesn’t quite fit into the narrative that’s been established - it feels a bit tacked on and more for the sake of a happy ending. But I can forgive these shortcomings (I’ve forgiven much worse in other films) - Catherine Called Birdy is very funny, I adore Bella Ramsey - they are one of my favourite upcoming actors. One of the standout characters is Paul Kaye’s Shaggy Beard, the final prospective husband for Birdy. He relishes in the role of being quite disgusting, and he is a joy to watch - belching and all. Lesley Sharp as Morwenna - Birdy’s long suffering servant - also adds threads of comedy, she’s sharp-witted, in tune to Birdy’s antics, but also serves to try and tame her - even just a little.
Ultimately Catherine Called Birdy isn’t doing anything revolutionary, it’s not even making any groundbreaking philosophical remarks or points - other than despite being set more than 700 years ago, there are some things that just haven’t changed for women. But what it does do - in a sea of teen comedies that are centred around romance, the dramatics of friendships - it takes a very funny, cheeky look at these topics and with Bella Ramsey at the helm, creates a space for a off-the-wall female driven narrative with all the recognisable struggles of being a teen. Catherine Called Birdy makes them more accessible, more human, less polished and has a great big dose of silly humour with heart.
Catherine Called Birdy is streaming on Amazon Prime